EUGENE DADI has set his sights on joining Tranmere's top-20 club before the Division Two campaign runs its course.

The Ivory Coast international striker took his tally to 18 league and cup goals this season with a well-taken double to earn Tranmere a 2-1 win over bottom club Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park on Easter Monday.

Tranmere have four games remaining for Dadi to add the two strikes he requires to match the achievement of Simon Haworth last season.

The Welshman was the first Tranmere player to reach the 20-goal mark for a season since John Aldridge in 1996/97.

A 20-goal haul would put the cap on a successful first season in English football for Dadi.

The 30-year-old French national says he set himself targets for this term after signing for Tranmere just before the campaign kicked off.

He explained: "The first was to play regularly in the first team and I have managed to do that.

"The second was to get 15 goals. I would have ben happy with that. Getting to 20 was not the most important thing, because everything after 15 is a bonus, but now I am so close it is the target.

"It was always my ambition to play in English football and this season has turned out not too bad."

Goals have not always come in abundance for the well-travelled Dadi. He managed only a handful in each of his two seasons in Scotland with Aberdeen and Livingston. Before the current campaign, his most prolific season was in Austria with Lienz.

Dadi admits that at one stage he was worried his first season in England might turn flat.

He had scored only four goals by early December and was spending almost as much time on the substitutes's bench as Tranmere's starting line-up.

Dadi said: "I did not do any preseason training because I arrived late in the summer and that meant I wasn't always at my best during the early part of the season.

"Around November and December, I was feeling a bit down."

However, when target-man Haworth broke his leg at Brentford in mid-January, more of the responsibility for carrying the Tranmere attack was thrust onto Dadi's shoulders. He responded impressively, scoring 12 goals in his last 22 senior starts.

Those goals have helped Tranmere make a strong revival in the league. The win at Wycombe lifted them 14 points clear of the relegation places after a run of seven unbeaten games.

Dadi said: "We are playing quite well at the moment and making chances for the forwards. We are getting a lot of crosses into the box which is good.

"I am quite happy about the way things have gone this season although I definitely think I could have done better if I had had a full pre-season training programme."

Dadi has also developed a strong rapport with the Tranmere supporters while outside football the launch of his fashion business has also gone well.